Final answer:
Longitudinal developmental studies like the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study and the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development have found that ethnicity is not directly related to crime. Instead, it is the cultural ecology and social environment of the neighborhood that influences crime rates.
Step-by-step explanation:
The findings from longitudinal developmental studies such as the Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study and the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development indicate that ethnicity is not directly related to crime. These studies found that recent immigrant groups exhibited high rates of juvenile delinquency in specific types of neighborhoods. However, when these immigrant families moved into more stable and prosperous neighborhoods, the delinquency rates declined. This suggests that it is the cultural ecology and social environment of the neighborhood that influences crime rates, rather than ethnicity.For example, the chief architects of social disorganization theory, Shaw and McKay, mapped different ethnic groups as they moved up the socio-economic ladder and from neighborhood to neighborhood. They found that the delinquency rates of juveniles declined for immigrant families who moved into more stable neighborhoods, while the delinquency rates remained high for families from the same ethnicity who stayed in the old neighborhood. Overall, these longitudinal studies highlight the importance of the neighborhood's social environment in influencing crime rates, rather than ethnicity itself.